AP United States Government and Politics
Summary Overview
Chapter 4: American Political Culture
Overview
The United States system of government is supported by a political culture that fosters a sense
of civic duty, takes pride in the nation’s constitutional arrangements, and provides support for the
exercise of essential civil liberties (albeit sometimes out of indifference more than principle). In recent
decades, people’s mistrust of government officials (though not of the system itself) has increased, and
confidence in officials’ responsiveness to the popular will has declined.
Although Americans value liberty in both the political system and the economy, they believe
equality is important principally in the political realm. In economic affairs, although a few people wish to
see equality of results, many support equality of opportunity and inequality of results.
Not only is the American culture generally supportive of democratic rule, it also has certain
distinctive features that make the American way of governing different from other democracies.
Americans are preoccupied with their rights. This fact, combined with a political system that encourages
the vigorous exercise of rights and claims, gives political life in the United States an adversarial
character. Unlike the Japanese or the Swedes, Americans do not generally reach political decisions by
consensus, and they often do not defer to the authority of administrative agencies. U.S. politics, more
than that of many other nations, has protracted conflict at every stage.
Theme A: What is “American Political Culture”?
Political culture is a “distinctive and patterned way of thinking about how political life ought to be
carried out.” The key elements of American political culture in the United States are the following:

Liberty: freedom from government restraints and protection of rights

Individual responsibility: barring disability, individuals are responsible for their own actions and
well-being

Equality: an equal vote and an equal chance to succeed

Democracy: government officials are accountable to the people

Civic duty: the obligation to take part in community affairs
It is interesting to note how these elements of the United States political culture almost mirror the
principles articulated by John Locke, making the United States a liberal nation in a philosophical sense.
Although we cannot prove that these elements exist, we can infer them from the books that Americans
read, the speeches they hear, the slogans to which they respond, the political choices they make, and
the observations of insightful foreign visitors. Inconsistent behavior and political conflict in United States
history can also be logically correlated with the political culture.
It may be difficult to see American political culture unless one is aware of the political culture of
other nations. It is widely known that the Japanese prefer collaboration and formality of manners to
America’s preference for individual accomplishment and informality. Most European nations do not feel
that working beyond a certain number of hours per week (for example, forty) is acceptable, whereas the
typical week for the American worker is now closer to fifty hours (plus substantial commuting time).
Even a nation as geographically and culturally close as Canada manifests a political culture that is quite
different from that found in the United States; Canadian law strongly discourages gun ownership,
whereas the tradition of bearing arms in America predates the Constitution.
Indeed, American political culture is strong enough to create certain policy problems (for example,
homelessness) and then to keep some solutions to these policy issues off the agenda (or at least on the
back burner) for decades, even centuries. One does not see as many homeless people in other northern
nations such as Canada or France. Why does homelessness exist in the United States? And what can be
done about it? The most obvious solution to the problem of homelessness is to guarantee each person
AP United States Government and Politics
the right to appropriate shelter. But American political culture does not allow this problem or this
solution to be the topic of serious public debate. The idea of individual responsibility—a primary
component of American political culture—means that each individual must gain his or her own shelter.
Homelessness is not a necessary part of the American public landscape, but solving this problem is made
more difficult by U.S. political culture.
Theme B: Divisions in American Political Culture
American political culture is characterized by the following elements:
1. The American Revolution, which had liberty as its object; the founding experience created a
preoccupation with the assertion and maintenance of rights
2. The absence of an official religion, which encouraged religious pluralism and, ultimately, political
pluralism
3. The dominance of Protestantism, which promotes individualism and personal responsibility
4. Child-rearing practices that treat children as valuable members of the family
5. Deep divisions over morality-based policy issues; fundamentalist Christians believe in an
unchanging standard of right and wrong, but progressive Christians and secular Americans adhere
to an individualistic understanding of morality
Despite a number of unifying characteristics, American political culture is by no means cohesive. In
the early 1990s, James Davison Hunter suggested that Americans had become fractured over the
definition and application of morality. He argued that this division produced two distinct cultural groups:
one that is culturally conservative and espouses a traditional definition of morality, and one that is
culturally liberal and embraces a moral perspective that is more flexible and individualistic. Although the
two groups typically differ with regard to religious beliefs, their conflict is over policy—not theology. In
particular, they often clash over specific morality-based issues, such as abortion, gay marriage,
embryonic stem cell research, and sex-education programs. Although the battles between the two
groups have been ongoing for some time, neither side appears willing to compromise its position.
Consequently, conflict over the understanding of morality may become a permanent part of American
political culture.
In addition to being susceptible to ongoing conflict, American political culture also has a tendency
to change over time. For example, the trust that Americans have in their government has varied
considerably, dropping substantially during the days of Vietnam and Watergate. Americans no longer
support their political leaders to the degree that they did in the 1950s, and the decline is perhaps
attributable to unrealized governmental policies and social turmoil. A similar drop has occurred in the
public’s sense of external efficacy (system responsiveness); Americans are now much more likely to say
that public officials care little about what the people think or want. American political efficacy remains
higher than in many other countries. Finally, Americans remain more tolerant of unpopular ideas,
individuals, and groups in the abstract than in reality. Yet because Americans often do not act on their
beliefs; cannot agree on which group, individual, or idea should be suppressed; and permit the courts to
enforce constitutional protections, personal liberties and constitutional freedoms endure.